The Coexistence Problem in Psychology, Anthropology, and Evolutionary Theory

摘要

In addressing the coexistence problem the contributors to this special issue of Human Development echoed many of the concerns raised by psychological and intel-lectualist perspectives in the anthropology of religion. Neglected, however, is a more dominant strand of anthropological thinking pointing to the different functions of natural and supernatural explanation in social discourse. In the course of our species' evolution, cognitive specializations have arisen to support technological and social learning in rather different ways. The unique - or at least uniquely exaggerated - human propensity for overimitation can be prompted by quite different orientations to the behavior being transmitted: the one instrumental and collaborative, the other deferential and affiliative. Supernatural explanation might best be understood as a byproduct of these cognitive adaptations, combining as it does the goal-orientedness of an instrumental stance with the irretrievable opacity of a normative stance. It seems likely that other proximate mechanisms narrow the field of possibilities for candidate supernatural explanations: those chiming well with our implicit intuitive beliefs (e.g., in ways suggested by several contributors to this special issue) enjoying a selective advantage in cultural transmission [Barrett, 2004; Boyer, 2001; Whitehouse, 2004]. In the course of cultural evolution, however, the social functions of supernatural explanation have themselves become subject to selection by consequences, giving rise to a great diversity of manifestations of the coexistence problem. A fuller understanding of this topic requires attention to both ultimate and proximate causes operating at the level of cultural groups as well as individuals' minds. This will be accomplished most effectively by combining the theories, methods, and findings of psychological, anthropological, and evolutionary sciences.